I ended last month’s article talking about the time-consuming steps of breaking down an electrical takeoff into component parts and listing each one on a price sheet. Each component then had to have material dollars and labor units added. Next, the math had to be done to arrive at totals for material dollars and labor hours. Finally, you should have your math double-checked by someone else. I ended the article with a hint that even in the early 1980s, there were alternatives to doing all this work by hand.

I remember one alternative, as I used it for a short while. In November 1980, I was hired as a trainee electrical estimator by an electrical contractor. The first thing they did was send me to a class for the Estimatic Electrical Estimating Systems. 

Recently, I tried to look up the history of this company online, but I could not find anything. Was this memory imagined? No, because I still have the book for this manual estimating system. It used assemblies, with pricing kept current with regularly published updates. Material prices rarely changed back then—often once a year.

The assemblies consisted of complete groups of material and labor for items such as receptacles, switches, conduit with wire and panelboards with breakers. The book had an assembly for almost every common electrical installation. It included assemblies for different locations, such as metal stud, suspended ceilings or masonry. Even though it seems this system is not around anymore, similar ones are available today. A quick internet search found at least a half dozen electrical estimating books, some with priced and labored assemblies. 

Early digital systems

I did not use the manual version of Estimatic very long, as it was used as an introduction to the computerized version. It was based on a time-share mainframe computer in Denver, which was accessed through a teletype machine connected to a telephone line. This system used the same assemblies as the manual version, with the addition of a 10-digit numerical code. The code was typed into the teletype and sent to Denver. Depending on the urgency code used, you could get a finished set of price sheets complete with material pricing and labor units with all the math finished in as little as an hour to several hours.

Lessons learned

Here’s the point of going over my early estimating history. When I moved on to my next job, the estimating was done manually. It was not an easy transition. My employer actually had to retrain me on how to prepare an estimate. The takeoff was still the same, but the manual part of breaking down the assemblies, listing them on a price sheet, adding material and labor units and doing all the math by hand seemed to take forever. 

Fortunately, my years as a pricing clerk made me very quick on a calculator, so that helped. However, I was spoiled. The speed of having a computer do all of the breakdown, listing, pricing, labor and math made me resent having to do it myself. 

Then one day, the boss surprised me. Jack McCormick, the owner of McCormick Estimating Systems, delivered and set up an estimating system on an Apple II computer. He also trained me over the next two days. It was awesome! 

The value of manual

In spite of my dislike for manual estimating, I later understood the value of this skill. Although most estimators use a computer estimating system now, it may still benefit you to learn manual estimating for commercial work. As I realized in relearning manual estimating, it is not the same process as residential, and there are hidden steps that you may not think of without training. 

Here are a few examples. Since this method is so time-consuming, our predecessors had come up with some shortcuts. Based on the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) method, we simplified the assemblies to save time. 

For instance, a duplex receptacle was only four parts: a box, ring, device and plate. The other components, like supports and wire nuts, were covered by a miscellaneous material markup of 7% of the material dollars. 

Another important difference between commercial and residential estimating is when the markups for overhead and profit are to be added. Many of the small contractors I trained have all of their markups in the labor rate. 

For commercial estimating, we do not use this practice, as we are trained to calculate the actual cost to do the work before adding markups. The total for all material, labor, quotations, rentals, subcontractors and other costs is calculated. Only then, when you know your true cost to complete the work, are overhead and profit added. 

Next month’s article will finish commercial estimating with a few more comments before moving on to industrial estimating.

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